NBC’s ‘Voice’ Finishes Week on Top for the First Time

TV's No. 1 music contest leads in both demos and total viewers; HBO's 'Thrones' hits high

If it wasn’t already clear, NBC’s “The Voice” is now TV’s top-rated music contest.

Last week, for the first time, its two segs finished as the week’s top programs among young adults to lift the Peacock to within a whisker of the adults 18-49 lead. It also claimed the top two spots in total viewers — surpassing ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” for a second straight week (and aided by the fact that CBS’ “NCIS” and “The Big Bang Theory” aired repeats).

A month into the second edition of this television season, the Peacock show is consistently topping Fox’s “American Idol” in both adults 18-49 and total viewers, according to Nielsen. Though they are at different stages of their current editions, last week the “Voice” performance show averaged a season-best 5.2 rating in adults 18-49 to a 3.4 for “Idol”; and in overall audience, the NBC show drew 14.45 million to 12.71 million for the Fox vet.

As would be expected, the hotter show skews younger, with the median age for “The Voice” standing at 45.9, while it was 53.4 for “Idol.”

NBC may have to guard against over-exposing the show, though, as “The Voice” is bulking up to five original hours next week (plus repeat hours over the weekend). In recent years, the net’s “The Biggest Loser” logged more firstrun minutes than any primetime broadcast series for three straight seasons, and this season that honor goes to “The Voice.”

But for now, there’s nothing hotter on the air and you can’t blame NBC for trying to squeeze as much out of it as it can.

Overall for the April 15-21 frame, Fox — which dominated Saturday with a UFC bout — led in adults 18-49 with a 1.9 rating/6 share, followed by CBS and NBC (both 1.8/5) and ABC and Univision (both 1.4/4). CBS won in both adults 25-54 (2.5/6) and total viewers (8.3 million).

The bombings in Boston were a big story throughout the week, culminating in the 8 o’clock hour on Friday with the capture of the second suspect. Nielsen estimates that nearly 42 million viewers were tuned in to either ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News or MSNBC — about double what they combined for in the same hour a week earlier.

Fox News (7.63 million) and CNN (6.78 million) both drew their largest non-political audiences in the 10 years since the start of the Iraq War.

While NBC dominated Tuesday early with “The Voice,” it took a tumble the rest of the night with “Ready for Love” (1.2/3, 3.20m), which was then pulled from the sked. And on Thursday, drama “Hannibal” was down in its third week (1.4/4, 3.51m) but continues to fare better than recent Peacock shows in the timeslot and is a notable gainer in DVR playback.

CBS standouts, in a week without originals of its top-rated Tuesday and Thursday shows, were reality vets “Survivor” (2.7/8 in 18-49, 9.99m) and “Amazing Race” (2.4/7, 9.16m). “Survivor” hit a high for its current Caramoan edition and pulled to within 0.4 of “American Idol” head-to-head in both 18-49 and 25-54.

For Fox, “Idol” remained a top-10 show despite its declines and hit a four-week demo high with its Wednesday episode (3.4/10, 12.71m); Tuesday’s “Hell’s Kitchen” grew 11% week to week (2.1/7, 4.77m).

The net rolled on Saturday with its “UFC on Fox” fight (1.8/7, 3.74m), which nearly matched the combined averages for the night of ABC, CBS and NBC.

ABC had a quiet week without some of its top series, but had reason to be pleased with the second-week perf of Wednesday laffer “How to Live With Your Parents” (2.0/5 in 18-49, 6.06m), which retained all of its repeat “Modern Family” demo lead-in (2.0/6, 6.43m). Not so hot is Saturday reality newbie “Bet On Your Baby” (0.6/2, 2.72m).

CW welcomed back musical-chairs competition series “Oh Sit” on Monday (0.4/1 in 18-49, 0.94m), performing about as well as “The Carrie Diaries,” which ended its season in the hour one week earlier.

Univision moved up to third place for the week in adults 18-34, getting a lift from the debut of 10 p.m. novela “Que Bonito Amor” (Beautiful Love). For the week, the Spanish-language net led primetime’s final hour in adults 18-34.

Telemundo’s “El Senor de los Cielos” (The Lord of the Skies) averaged 2.4 million viewers in its first week, becoming the net’s second highest-rated novela premiere to date. The net finished the week ranked 10th among all networks in adults 18-49.

In cable, HBO’s “Game of Thrones” achieved another series high Sunday (2.6/7 in 18-49, 4.87m) and impressively ruled as the No. 1 series on all of television for the night in 18-49.

A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” was the top cable program for the week in both 18-49 (3.9/10) and total viewers (8.90 million).
The frame’s top scripted cable programs in 18-49 were History’s “The Vikings” (1.4/4 in 18-49, 3.85m) and A&E’s “Bates Motel” (1.1/3, 2.66m).